We are celebrating our 8th birthday in May!
Who would have thought that when we started trading in honey in 2016? We were inspired to do this in 2015 on a holiday trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The Reiterlesmarkt has been held in this medieval town every year before Christmas since the 15th century. And it was there that we came across beekeepers from Finland who travel south with their goods to sell them at markets. Exotic honeys of the kind that are popular in Finland could be tasted and bought. The Finns brought sauna honey, menthol honey, vodka in honey, cloudberry honey, etc. ... they were all types of honey that are completely unknown in Austria.
We knew straight away that it could be a good idea to bring exotic honeys from all over the world to Vienna. Because it was immediately clear that not only the Finns have their specialties, but that every country has its own honey products and beekeeping products that are unknown to us.
The shop was quickly found and set up, and we were able to welcome our first customer in May 2016. It was a Canadian woman who was looking for souvenirs before the official opening and gave us the very first 10 euro note. We naturally kept it as a lucky charm. And shortly afterwards the second customer came into the shop, a Japanese businessman who paid us with a punched lucky coin from his homeland. We also hold this coin in high esteem.
After that, things happened very quickly: rumors about a hong paradise spread among local beekeepers and the first beekeepers set out to see what was going on. The skeptics among them saw us as competition and did not welcome us in a friendly manner, but the smart ones immediately saw the business opportunities and offered their products.
And that's how it has remained 8 years later. For some, we are a reliable trading partner, for others, we are an annoying competitor that needs to be boycotted. Thankfully, customers don't see this as a negative thing, because without the positive feedback from our customers, we wouldn't have been able to survive for 8 years.
In order to make ourselves known, we initially exhibited at markets in addition to our shop. Among other things, there was a honey stand at the organic farmers on Freyung, in the Markterei in Postgasse and at the Christmas market in front of the large church on Enkplatz in Simmering. But it soon became clear - and especially with the lockdown due to Corona - that the future was not in markets, but on the Internet. As if we had suspected something about Corona, at the beginning of 2020 we overhauled our online presence and the website went overboard. Instead of the homepage, we started this web shop and it still works perfectly. And this decision to focus on the web shop turned out to be the right one in retrospect. Because during the Covid crisis, internet orders boomed beyond measure and while we could only open the shop sporadically and for a few hours, we were completely drowned in online orders.
These internet sales got us through the Corona crisis without having to claim subsidies from the Republic. And as soon as Corona was put aside, the war came. Yet another change that we had to adapt to. We reacted by giving up the expensive business location in the 1st district and moving to the much cheaper 3rd district of Vienna. The new location is close to the U3 Kardinal-Nagl Platz station and so we have retained many of our regular customers from the city center. The route on the U3 is really short and we are easy to reach from all directions. In addition, instead of the tourist area in the city, we have now found a real residential area that allows us to appeal to other customer groups.
We are very pleased with the business development over the first 8 years and we are certainly not at the end of the journey yet. We look back with a little sadness at many companies that were founded with us or after us, but for whatever reason have had to close again.
And because birthdays are also a time for giving presents, we would like to give our customers a birthday discount . In May, there is an 8% discount on every online order . There are no conditions attached to this, every order qualifies for the birthday discount.
To secure the discount, please put the goods in your shopping basket, then proceed to checkout and enter the word HappyBirthdayWelthonig in the discount code field on the right. The discount will be immediately calculated, displayed and deducted from the final amount.
Thank you for your loyalty and trust in our world honey business and honey products!